Google honours Saudi writer Abdul Rahman Munif with Doodle

Ahram Online , Monday 29 May 2023

The search engine Google is celebrating the 90th birthday of the late Saudi Arabian writer Abdul Rahman bin Ibrahim Munif on 29 May with a Doodle.

Abdul-Rahman Munif

 

Munif, a towering figure in Saudi Arabian literature, was a highly regarded novelist, short story writer, memoirist, journalist, thinker and cultural critic of the 20th century.

His extraordinary mastery of the Arabic language cemented his status as one of the greatest masters of the written word.

Born on 29 May 1933 in Amman, Jordan, Munif graduated in law from the University of Baghdad, Iraq. He later continued his studies at Cairo University in Egypt, eventually earning a PhD in petroleum economics from the University of Belgrade in 1961.

While working in the oil industry in Iraq and then Syria, he practiced his writing in the Iraqi monthly magazine Al-Naft wa Al-Tanmiyya (Oil and Development), of which he was an editor.

Munif began his literary journey by publishing several short stories, which was followed in 1973 by his debut novel, Al Ashjar wa-ightiyal Marzuq (Trees and the Assassination of Marzooq).

His best-known work is the five-part series Mudun Al-Milh (Cities of Salt, 1984-1989), in which he vividly depicts the changes in the Arab world during the oil era.

Other notable literary contributions include Al-Nihayat (Endings, 1978), Sharq al-Mutawassit (East Of The Mediterranean) and the historical trilogy Ard Al-Sawad (Land of Darkness Trilogy, 1999), according to the Google biography of Abdul-Rahman Munif.

Munif's 15 novels and nine non-fiction books have been translated into over 10 languages.

His profound impact on the literary landscape earned him several prestigious awards, including the Al Owais Cultural Award in 1989 and the Award of Cairo Gathering for Arab Creativity in Novel Writing in 1998.

Munif passed away in Syria on 24 January 2004 at the age of 70.

The Google Doodle dedicated to Munif can be seen throughout the MENA region, commemorating his remarkable contributions to literature and culture.

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